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Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Tom Waterhouse, who recently received his first batch of Le Noeud Papillon bespoke shirts, launches this week his new website www.tomwaterhouse.com which is an online sports betting website. We wish him the best of luck.

I particularly like his red tartan bow - you don't see enough red tartan around. Reminds me of my 1st class teacher Mrs McClean. She was a bit of a bitch, but she wore nice tartan. Actually, she had my shoes removed for a whole day for kicking one of her fellow Scotsmen students in the balls. I was 7 years old - and I pretty much did to the class bully what Little Zangief did. Only there wasn't mobile phone cameras or You Tube in those days... Enough about me, Will's blog is below.

Monday, March 28, 2011

It had been all too long since I had watched Risky Business and with Saturday's weather, the rain and the wind, I'd decided to join my friend Hayden for some Foxtel on demand rather than to stay at home on my Ipad. And what a joy it was to revisit this film, which I found to be so much more than a teen fantasy film. I think there are a whole lot more layers to this film than meets the eye.

Buy it here: Risky Business . I don't know where you can buy the soundtrack from but it features the music of Tangerine Dream - some of the best composition out of those 80's films. Hard to imagine it's almost 30 years old now.

Something to note: Lana's bow tie on her dress at their last lunch together.

But maybe you would have heard the music he composed for some of your favourite films - for one, my most treasured film in the whole wide world - Cinema Paradiso. Then the following in no particular order: The Mission, The Untouchables, Good The Bad And The Ugly, Baaria, Malena, A Fist Full Of Dollars.... The list just goes on and on.

One of my greatest movie quotes of all time is when Hyman Roth (played by Lee Strasberg) gives his speech 'This is the business we've chosen' to Michael Corleone (Al Pacino) in the Godfather Part 2. I will reproduce it here:Hyman Roth: There was this kid I grew up with; he was younger than me. Sorta looked up to me, you know. We did our first work together, worked our way out of the street. Things were good, we made the most of it. During Prohibition, we ran molasses into Canada... made a fortune, your father, too. As much as anyone, I loved him and trusted him. Later on he had an idea to build a city out of a desert stop-over for GI's on the way to the West Coast. That kid's name was Moe Greene, and the city he invented was Las Vegas. This was a great man, a man of vision and guts. And there isn't even a plaque, or a signpost or a statue of him in that town! Someone put a bullet through his eye. No one knows who gave the order. When I heard it, I wasn't angry; I knew Moe, I knew he was head-strong, talking loud, saying stupid things. So when he turned up dead, I let it go. And I said to myself, this is the business we've chosen; I didn't ask who gave the order, because it had nothing to do with business!But one of the more interesting things to note is that the character of Hyman Roth was inspired by Meyer Lansky. Here is some very interesting tid bits about that relationship which I found on Wikipedia.The character Hyman Roth, portrayed by Lee Strasberg, and certain aspects of the main character Michael Corleone from the film The Godfather Part II (1974), are based on Lansky. In fact, shortly after the premiere in 1974, Lansky phoned Strasberg and congratulated him on a good performance (Strasberg was nominated for an Oscar for his role), but added "You could've made me more sympathetic." Roth's statement to Michael Corleone that "We're bigger than U.S. Steel" was actually a direct quote from Lansky, who said the same thing to his wife while watching a news story on the Cosa Nostra. The character Johnny Ola is similar to Lansky's associate Vincent Alo. Additionally, the character Moe Greene, who was a friend of Roth's, is modeled upon Bugsy Siegel.[8][9] The film reflects real life in that Lansky was denied the Right of Return to Israel and returned to the U.S. to face criminal charges, but fabricated details regarding Roth's attempts to bribe Latin American dictators for entry to their countries, as well as Roth's ultimate fate.

I really like this look of American writer Ryan Murphy (Nip/Tuck, Popular & Glee) - an electric blue silk smoking jacket with a midnight blue velvet bow tie. I would lose the aviators but then I don't live in Hollywood - so perhaps it's soup du jour. The flat jets in contrasting fabric is an awesome finish to this jacket. I also think he made the right choice of not having a pocket square. Thumbs up!

What a genius. I remember the first time I saw an exhibit of Dali's and I was mesmerised at how fine his brushwork was. He seemed extraordinarily meticulous. He's wearing a lovely white bow tie in this picture too.

For any of you that follow this blog overseas - there is a remarkable comedian in Australia named Barry Humphries - who created a character which resonates with all Australians - if not the entire globe now. Her name is Dame Edna Everage - she is a style guru - a housewife - an entertainer and one of the sharpest tongues in show business. And if you want to know more about her genesis - see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Humphries

And whilst this has nothing to do with bow ties, I would absolutely adore it if I could get one of my bows over to Barry Humphries - or perhaps design a silk with Dame Edna in mind. Below is her televised interview with Sean Connery.

A while back I heard that there was a store dedicated to bow ties in New York. If anyone has there address please share it with me as I'd like to stop past on my next visit.

Thank you to Nick Hand for enlightening us:

Re your blog post about a bow tie store in NYC; the photo accompanying your post is of the bow tie wall at Seigo Neckwear, 1248 Madison Ave., between 89 & 90. (I think they also have a shop in Midtown, on 3rd Ave.)

They don’t stock just bows, but also four in hands and pochettes and scarves – all made in Japan.

I was in the shop on Sunday, and although I didn’t buy anything, it seems pretty good quality, and they have hundreds upon hundreds of silk designs. Definitely worth a look next time you’re in NY.

It was a pleasure to see Mayer Hawthorne now sporting the bow he received in February when we met at Sydney University. This is the Churchill, a bow I am particularly fond of. A mogador silk I worked on late last year.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

For Electric Empire, before they head off to the Glastonbury Music Festival , Le Noeud Papillon Sydney created monochromatic bespoke shirts for the guitarist Dennis Dowlut, drummer Jason Heerah and bass Marcel Yammouni. The shirts feature contrasting collars, half way fronts and cuff bands with embroidered 'Electric Empire' on the side of each front.

Saturday, March 12, 2011

For Dennis Dowlut of Electric Empire (see http://www.facebook.com/ElectricEmpire) - we created a bespoke shirt for each member of the band. Here, Dennis wears Le Noeud Papillon bespoke fly front 170 2 ply Platino cloth - with embroidered heart and initials on the body in contrast black and black band on the cuffs. His bow tie is a Le Noeud Papillon 'Boardwalk' limited edition.

Friday, March 11, 2011

La Patisserie Jeans have finally arrived in Australia. They will release which stores they are going to stock them in on their facebook page - http://www.facebook.com/album.php?profile=1&id=138919232796831 . They are made in Italy by Italians and feature a more luxurious finish inside with a tartan pochette in the back pocket of each pair of jeans. Also in the range are shirts and urban bow ties.

I have to be totally honest here, I had no idea who this guy was and I had only once heard about the Rachel Zoe Project from a friend - so I am a total ignoramus - but then I don't have television in my apartment. So, I am checking my blog stats today and I see that there is this guy called 'Brad Goreski' that everyone searches my blog for and I have no idea who he is but he is one of the top searched names in the history of my blog. Je vous presentez!